A vaccine (illustration).

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Koki Kataoka / AP / SIPA

The British pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca has resumed its tests in the United Kingdom on a vaccine against the epidemic of the new coronavirus with the green light of the health authorities, the group announced on Saturday in a press release, three days after having had to interrupt them.

“Clinical trials of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine have resumed in the UK after the Medicines Regulatory Authority (MHRA) confirmed that it was safe,” the group, which works on this project with the University of Oxford.

Independent committee

The trials were put on hold on Wednesday after the onset of a "potentially unexplained illness", possibly a serious side effect, in a participant in the United Kingdom.

An independent committee was then set up to assess the risks associated with the vaccine.

The committee "has completed its investigation and told the MHRA it is safe for testing to recommence in the UK," AstraZeneca said.

During a conference held online Thursday, the group's chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said that such a break in testing was not abnormal, but that it had more resonance given the interest around of this vaccine, considered one of the most promising in the world.

He also estimated that it was still possible to get "a vaccine by the end of the year" or "the beginning of next year".

35 "vaccine candidates"

The vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the British University of Oxford is one of the most advanced Western projects, tested on tens of thousands of volunteers in the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa and, since August 31, the United States, in what is called phase 3 of the trials, the last, to verify safety and efficacy.

In its last point dated Wednesday, the WHO lists 35 “vaccine candidates” evaluated in clinical trials on humans around the world.

Nine are already at the last stage, or are preparing to enter.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) estimates "that it could take at least until early 2021 for a vaccine against Covid-19 to be ready for approval and available in sufficient quantities" for global use.

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